To most people living in America, being an American is thought to be a great thing. The American dream sought out by the founding fathers and immigrants that were striving to get to this country was the doctrine of: “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. Americans get to make their own choices. They get to express themselves through freedom of speech without being afraid they will be put in prison or killed. Americans can be free in what they choose to wear and what they choose to do with their time and money. To people who aren’t American, life is about family, happiness, freedom, and white picket fences. To other people, American life is the life. The only thing is, that’s most people.
To me, being an American isn’t the greatest thing. I think that out of all the places to live, America is the best, but to me that’s not saying much. If America was really like all the adjectives that are associated with it, freedom, peace, diversity, acceptance, and equality, it would truly be a great place. Somewhere along the way to modernization, these founding ideas were lost and twisted to spit out the America we have today.
When people come to America from countries of oppression, tyranny, and subjugation, they are expecting to come into a country of freedom and self-expression. Instead they get only half the package. The American government doesn’t oppress the citizens; it’s the people who do it to each other. There is so much ignorance in the country it creates a huge amount of negativity towards people who don’t resemble the painted picture of an American. People who come here expect to be welcomed with open arms since this is the country of opportunity and freedom, but instead they are called names and harassed because they have an accent or wear a veil. That is when they find out that the free country isn’t really that free at all.
We as Americans are supposed to want peace and freedom throughout the world. It seems a bit strange how there is all this talk about peace and the actions taken out are the exact opposites. The violent actions of the past year are highly disturbing and quite sad because America shouldn’t be creating violence, it should be trying to stop it. It seems like the President has just added fuel to the fire. It doesn’t seem like there were completely impersonal motives behind the “liberation of the Iraqi people”. To be behind someone whose motives aren’t entirely for the interest of the people is not something I’m interested in.
Democracy is something that is available to all people no matter where they come from. Just because a person wasn’t born in America, doesn’t mean they are trying to be unpatriotic, or hateful towards this country, they are just trying to exercise their first amendment rights. And just because someone is born in American or is an American citizen, doesn’t mean that they are going to agree with and support everything that the President says. Everyone is entitled to what they want to believe in and to criticize someone for that would go against what our founding fathers worked so hard to create.
Being an American means something different to everyone. That is why people came here in the first place, to be free and be themselves without being thought of as low or wrong. The pursuit of happiness and all other freedoms are enjoyed by those who wish to obey the law of the land. These freedoms include the freedom of choice, speech, and those of the life. To not be given the freedoms based on a certain characteristic of a person isn’t very American at all. Living the American Dream is living your own dream and being an American is all about being yourself.